Writing in prison, and writing to prisoners: the inmate who became the literary darling

I suppose you can't really fault Norman Mailer for being seduced by Jack Henry Abbott. After all, he had already courted Gary Gilmore (complete aside--how wild was it when Mailer & his son appeared on Gilmore Girls?!), who had been acquainted with Abbott in prison. And then of course there's Mailer's whole romance/own problem with violence (i.e. the stabbing-his-wife-incident in 1960--she didn't press charges, but she did eventually publish a book about it).

Their correspondence deepened, and Mailer eventually helped Abbott secure parole. Mailer and his new disciple (perhaps a surrogate for Gilmore; the two never met) became fast friends in New York--Mailer made the calls to help Abbott publish his memoir, In the Belly of the Beast, and the two "did" literary New York--and even appeared on "Good Morning America" together. On July 18, 1981--just one day before the New York Times published a sterling review of his book--Abbott fatally stabbed a 22 year-old waiter in an East Village cafe. He fled town, and when he was apprehended and brought to trial in 1982 he found himself with some celebrity supporters: Susan Sarandon (her son is named after Abbott), Jerzy Kosinski, and Christopher Walken (though, in typical Walken-ese, he told the NY Post: "I often go to court to watch people's emotions").

I'm wondering, though: how many of you have corresponded with prison inmates? My father is involved in prison ministry, I've taught at a prison, but I've never maintained a written dialogue with anyone serving time & I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has...

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Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)